While it’s still okay to hit back…

Recently, in our president’s further efforts at promoting his stilted economic package, a thinly veiled threat was made regarding Congress’ apparent lack of cooperation: “If we don’t do anything, then growth will be slower than it should be. Unemployment will not go down as fast as it should. Income inequality will continue to rise … Racial tensions won’t get better; they may get worse, because people will feel as if they’ve got to compete with some other group to get scraps from a shrinking pot.” So now with racial tensions already at a fever pitch, he effectively put his followers on alert – readying them to hit the streets if stuff doesn’t go his way. Ironically, he is simultaneously pushing to legalize millions of illegal immigrants – allowing them to legally compete for scraps from this same shrinking pot.

But of course, he didn’t stop there. He had to show everybody who was in charge by putting us all on report regarding the power he continues to usurp through his pitiful, fiat executive orders: “I’m not just going to sit back if the only message from some of these folks is no on everything, and sit around and twiddle my thumbs for the next 1,200 days.” Often times, Mr. President, the apparent sluggishness of our democracy can be attributed to the checks and balances that are designed to keep tyrants like you from running things without any participation from the representatives of the people.

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It all reminded me of the sleazy drama of some 1920s gangster protection racket film. I’m sure you’ve seen the movie: The neighborhood mob boss walks into a barely surviving delicatessen, smiles at the owner, and looks around and says “Nice shop you’ve got here. Wouldn’t it be a shame if somebody busted the place up?”

And that’s just how he behaves. Since his first inauguration, he has had this nation on its back with his hand tightly around our throat. His fist is raised high in the air, and he is on his knees above us, pummeling the life out of our dying democracy. It’s called ‘bullying’ – pure and simple. And what sort of response have we seen from our congressional representatives? Nothing-to-not-much. Apparently, somewhere along the way, we’ve completely lost our appetite for a good scrap. What a time to knuckle under – now, when we so desperately need our fortitude out front where it counts. What’s happened to us? Time was, when we would NEVER have tolerated such an atrocity.

For the past several years, we have gradually allowed the guts and backbone of our nation’s Christian heritage to be totally compromised and eviscerated, removed from the people to whom it had been entrusted. Today, America’s living conscience has been replaced with ‘political correctness,’ the new intimidating bludgeon used to keep everyone in line. The ‘church’ that in times past represented our highest standards of vision and achievement has become more and more separated from its assignment as prime example and light bearer for our dying nation and planet. Even the pope, who purports to be the vicar of Christ, recently stepped away from reinforcing the disdain God has already clearly expressed toward homosexuality. Choosing political correctness over God’s Word, he said only: “Who am I to judge?” Who, indeed?

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Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer told us that “When society has no absolute, society becomes the absolute.” And that is certainly reflected in the fruit of our negligence currently sprouting all around us.

Back in 1963, super-atheist Madeline Murray O’Hare won her Supreme Court case removing Bible reading from public schools. Aside from a bunch of fiery rhetoric from an indignant few, no one did anything to turn it around. And that was just another beginning in a front of attacks on Western Christianity’s survival. In the 80s, I watched the gays bicker with all sorts of professing Christians who had forgotten that their only strength lay in close fellowship with God and in the mastery of His Word. Yet, in their naïveté and haste to be politically correct, Christians allowed themselves to be lured out of the arena where our enemy did not stand a chance. Even though they knew better, they wound up in absurd arguments about the anatomical and emotional suitability of men who want to pretend to be women (and mothers and women who insist they can be husbands and dads.)

Okay, so let’s say that we lose God entirely and march boldly on into the brave new world of our own making. Where is that going to get us? In figuring that out, we only need to begin by looking at the tenor of our existence over just the past few decades. Where has our ungodliness gotten us to this point? Well, in just 50 years, the hearts of our people have been ruined by our decided lack of direction. Divorce is now more common than marriage. Homosexuality is imposed upon us as the new norm, and our economy is moth-eaten with a debt that can never be repaid. Our new drugs and mentors are television, video games, and the worst sort of garbage movies. Given that sort of tutelage piped into our homes, is it any wonder that we have lost our abilities to see straight and reason for ourselves?

The only way to regain our country is through the redemption of its people. If we continue to act like dogs, we will lose even more of the dignity required to stand up to those who want to enslave us. The old saying that evil prevails when good men do nothing is so completely documented in our current dilemma. But, where are the good men? Only God knows the answer to that question. It’s way past time that we as individuals seek His help in finding our way back to sanity, genuine bravery, and (therefore) real ‘hope and change.’